Today, the largest technology companies in the world create social connections, organize the world’s information, and build great devices. These have a massive impact on society. According to McKinsey, social media’s impact is estimated to top $1.3 trillion annually.

That’s a big number, and if you’re a software developer, its one that will get you featured on Techcrunch, and get you lauded by your techie friends, too.

Around the halls of FlorenceHC, (although maybe too smugly) we insist that health technology is more important, perhaps the highest calling for software development. It feels good to get up and go to work in the morning for this reason. It feels good to tell your friends what you do.

Perhaps for the same reasons, the big tech cos are realizing this and are inching into healthcare. Apple is stepping in with HealthKit and Google has CaliCo. The rest of the ecosystem is following suit:  By mid 2014, 0ver 50 percent of venture-backed IPO exits went to healthcare companies. It was the fifth consecutive quarter that health-care companies have topped technology companies for public exits, according to CB Insights.

But boy, clinical trials? Have we picked perhaps the least-sexy segment of a less sexy segment? Regulatory-laden clinical trials make creating software solutions in the segment seem staid and boring– True, only if you don’t want to tackle the hard stuff.

Taking on clinical trials adds another dimension to the healthIT challenge. It hasn’t been long since “traveling docs” proposed elixirs as cure-alls. To combat safety issues from untested medicines, important regulation arose. This culminated in the 1978 Belmont Report, which summarized ethical guidelines for research involving human subjects into principles of respect for persons, beneficence, and justice.

We are glad regulation like this is there. It requires our healthIT software developer team to revel in the details, the backend, the plumbing of clinical data to drive change in healthcare. We seek beautiful efficiency in clinical trial software to empower clinical trial researchers to propel humanity forward to create real cures. By taking on this least sexy of the least sexy, we believe health software can move beyond helping a patient Google this disease and read Wikipedia.

Are you ready to do good, feel good? Make software that matters. Are you ready to make software that matters with us? Email info@florencehc.com.